In brief:

I'm a redheaded mama with four lovely daughters. We're based in southern Australia and travel in a small, colourful housebus  meeting inspiring people, learning lots and re-thinking everything. I feel passionately about spirituality, good design, alternative education, discussing death and conscious parenting.

Wool people

9 May 11

The very resourceful Clare directed us in this simple craft project this morning at the Rainbow Kids playgroup. Our girls are delighted with their little wool people, and have spent the rest of the day playing with them!

Clare is an early childhood teacher and has a wealth of craft ideas which she shares with the playgroup. Shasa was eager to use her scissors in making her wool person.

This little wool dolly is very simple for a 6yo to make with a bit of adult assistance.

Here’s how they’re made.

The materials are very simple: wool, cardboard and scissors.

Wrap the wool around the length of cardboard many times. Aisha could do the initial wrapping and needed some help to tie it off.

Before pulling the wool off the cardboard, tie off the top. This holds the head together.

After pulling the wool off the cardboard, tie another knot to form the round head.

Divide the rest of the wool into arms and legs, and tie each section off, including the waist.

Cut off the ends of the limbs.

If you want to dress your person, use a scrap of fabric. Fold it over lengthwise, cut a small circle for the head, and if you want to make "pants", cut a slit at the bottom too.

Slip the tunic over the head of your wool person and secure it with a "belt".

For best results, make several people. They can be easily put to bed under another scrap of fabric!

By the end of our craft activity, our playgroup made a lovely group of wool people  all special individuals in their own right!

Mummycraft factor: 4. The intervention necessary depends on the age of the child you’re doing this craft with. Our 6yo could handle the scissors and winding the wool. She could also tie knots to keep everything in place. This is too difficult a craft for 3yos, but they love playing with these wool dolls, so if you have younger children, perhaps you can make some wool people as a little present! (The Mummycraft factor tells you how much of the craft the mummy ends up doing. 10 is full-on-Mummy-does-the-craft and 0 is walk-away-and-come-back-to-a-finished-craft.)

So cute! My son got us all hooked on making a variation of these…using twist ties (from garbage bags) as the doll frame and embroidery thread. He was quite good at using different colors to make hair, shirts, pants. And then had fun posing them all over the house…i’d find the dolls for weeks after hiding in plants, hanging from a lamp pull, sitting on a window ledge…always made me smile!